


Vigilantes and War Heroes

by this_is_the_end



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-03
Updated: 2015-03-03
Packaged: 2018-03-16 04:33:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3474572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/this_is_the_end/pseuds/this_is_the_end
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard died two years ago and has been brought back to fight the Reapers. She thought that Kaidan would accept that and join her again on the Normandy, but she was sadly mistaken. She has to move on. (Follows Shep and crew throughout Mass Effect 2) (Kind of just my modification of Mass Effect 2)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vigilantes and War Heroes

**Author's Note:**

> So I rated this mature for future chapters (assuming that I stick with this and write it that much) but I also wanted to give you guys just a little heads up: 
> 
> This is going to be a story that sticks with Mass Effect 2 and there are going to be some scenes that are word for word but then I modify others to fit my story and what I want to do with the characters. I wanted to say that now, so that you guys don't hate me when a scene is altered. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy the story. :)  
> (Shakarian forever.)

Shepard had faced death before - she had stared down the barrels of countless guns and yet had still managed to walk away alive, somehow. She had witnessed the deaths of countless comrades in arms and had been there to hear the dying words meant for their families. She had been the one to deliver those words to their families, sometimes. Now, when death stared her in the face and she saw no possible way to escape, she finally felt the fear that she had become immune to over the years. She finally felt the surge of adrenaline that raced through her bloodstream and shot into her heart - yet, her life still didn't flash before her eyes. She didn't see the cliché montage of moments from her life. There was no light at the end of the tunnel - hell, she didn't even see the tunnel.  


The moment before her lungs collapsed and her brain finally went dead was one of complete panic for her. She frantically tried to reach all the unreachable holes on her back and plug them - keep the oxygen in, damn it! - but that had only succeeded in using up what precious air she did in fact have. Her eyes landed on the horizon of some distant planet - was that Palaven? - and she suddenly couldn't remember. She couldn't remember where she had been or what she had been doing. All she knew was panic. She could feel her heart speeding up and she could feel the fear eating away at her nerves.  


Soon, the world went black.  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

She thought death would be less painful, but with every breath she took, pain seared into her and lit her nerves on fire. Every breath she took…  


Shepard's eyes flew open. Her breaths became more frantic, more painful. Eyes focused on blurry figures above her, one a woman and one a flustered doctor. She tried to from words, her mouth feeling like huge cotton balls. She tried to take even breaths, but that only made it harder and soon her brain was running haywire - every instinct she had was telling her to get up. Get up and Fight!  


"Don't try to move, Commander." The woman spoke and Shepard's eyes landed on her with fear and confusion overwhelming them. She gasped again, slammed back onto the bed by some force of momentum. She heard the muffled conversation before she was shoved back into the void - _give her another dose._  


Black was always her least favorite color. N7 used it in the majority of their uniforms and she supposed that was why she hated it so much. So uniform and plain. But now, blackness was what swallowed her whole. She tried to claw her way back to the top but her fingernails couldn't quite sink into the slippery slope that pushed her further into unconsciousness. She fell faster and faster until there was a flash of gold and she whirled to face it.  


_"Shepard!"  
_

_"Kaidan, go! Get the crew off the ship!"  
_

_"I'm not leaving, Shepard." His golden eyes flashed with emotion - love - and he reached out to her with a desperate hand. She backed away, eyes harshly meeting his as she pulled her hair back and slipped on her helmet.  
_

_"That's an order, Major." Her voice was final, even if her eyes begged him to stay. Her eyes pleaded for him to disobey her just this once and stay behind - stay with her and vanquish the fear as he always did. Instead, he turned on his heel with one last pained flash of golden eyes and slid on his helmet, dashing back into the flames.  
_

_She refused to let the tears fall, even as she plummeted to her death.  
_

Shepard gasped, lurching up as a voice droned distantly in her ears. Pain seared up her spine and her legs begged her to stop breathing. She pushed the curtain of waist length hair out of her face, bright eyes scanning the room frantically.  


"Shepard, do you hear me? Get out of that bed _now_ \- this facility is under attack."  


Shepard numbly obeyed, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and attempting to stand. She crashed to her knees, barely catching herself on the side of the bed as she attempted to regain her balance. She felt her ribs protesting and tried to ignore them, wrapping an arm around her middle as she stood up as straight as she could. She rasped a few breaths before she heard the voice speaking to her again.  


"- gun in the locker in the corner." Shepard hissed a few choice curse words through her teeth as she pushed herself up and off the table. She winced with each limped step, but made it to the locker and grabbed the empty gun.  


"There aren't any fucking heatsinks." She growled to the disembodied voice. She thought she heard a huff of air, indicating an exasperated roll of the eyes.  


"There should be some around - get out of that room!" The voice demanded. Shepard obeyed as another tremor shook whatever vessel they were on. She put one foot in front of the other and tried to focus on something other than the pain that was searing down her spine.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_"Do you miss it?" Kaidan pulled her back against him as they watched the galaxy whirl by outside the Normandy observation deck. Shepard linked their hands together over her abdomen and leaned back against him. He pulled her tightly against his chest, resting his chin on her shoulder.  
_

_"Miss what?" Kaidan kissed her lightly on the shoulder.  
_

_"Earth." She turned to embrace him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He leaned in and pressed their foreheads together, humming lightly under his breath. She watched as his eyes fluttered closed, captivated by the burning gold.  
_

_"Not a lot for me to miss. I don't have any family back there." Kaidan hummed and lowered his hands to her hips.  
_

_"I do. Miss it, I mean." Shepard hummed this time as she pressed closer and aligned their bodies completely. "I miss grass. Actual Earth grass."  
_

_Shepard smiled and chuckled lightly. She played with strands of hair at the base of his neck, twirling it around her fingers. He slid his hands further down her body, golden eyes deepening with lust.  
_

_"Well, Mr. Alenko, I have a deal for you." She pulled away, hands still linked as she moved closer to the couch. "When all this is over, you owe me a date."  
_

_Kaidan kissed her passionately, pressing back until her knees hi the edge of the couch. She moaned and curled her fingers in his hair, opening her mouth against his. He pressed their hips together and almost toppled them onto the couch.  
_

_"Deal." He breathed against her._

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Shepard." The voice broke into her consciousness again and she opened bleary eyes. Her world rolled into focus as she let out a low groan. She ran a hand over her face, every bone she had popping in protest.  


"You can't possibly expect me to move, can you?" It was enough that she had woken up in the middle of combat but now her body was showing the signs. She stared up at the raven-haired woman with a blank stare.  


"You have a ship to command."  


"No. _You_ have a _prison_ to run." Shepard pushed herself up in bed as, evidently, the woman was not going to allow her to sleep. She say and ran a hand through her hair, noticing how desperately she needed a shower.  


"We are not your enemy, Commander."  


"Look, Miss Lawson, was it?" Shepard stood and faced the woman, eyes harsh. The woman nodded at her name. "I will die _again_ before I work willingly for Cerberus."  


Shepard moved slowly, still trying to be gentle with her aching body. She walked to the bathroom of the room she was in - she still had no idea where she was, mind you - and stood by the door. Lawson looked as though she wanted to say something and Shepard was allowing her the chance. She rest a hand on the doorknob.  


"You need to speak with the Illusive Man."  


"No, I _need_ to sleep - I _have to_ speak to the Illusive Man." Shepard opened the door and stepped into the bathroom, locking it behind her. She moved to stand in front of the mirror, hunched over the vanity in pain. She hadn't been able to see herself yet and honestly she dreaded what she might see. She was afraid that she would not be herself - that they would have altered her beyond all recognition.  


Slowly, she pulled away her Cerberus logo clothes. She pulled away every last layer and eventually stood bare before the mirror. She studied her limbs first, wriggling her toes and fingers and counting all ten. All her freckles were still there on porcelain skin - she had figured that the lack of sunlight would have made her pale but this was drastic change. The one thing she noticed was that all her scars were gone and her skin was unmarred. She shifted uncomfortably at this revelation. Those scars had been a part of her for so long - they told her story. Without them, she felt lost and incomplete.  


She finally looked up to meet the eyes of a ghost. The blue eyes that she had once thought so full of life and determination now looked as though they had been drained completely. There was no spar or light in them, no movement. They were unmoving oceans preparing for the storm - dark and disturbed yet utterly insensitive.  


Even the set of her square jaw was different somehow. Freckles still covered every inch of her face but her lips looked parched and frozen in a somber expression. Her jaw was tense and fighting 0 the one part of her that seemed to show any determination.  


She reached up and touched a finger to her cheek, pressing against a red cybernetic scare. The scar glowed and pulsed beneath her finger and her somber lips turned into a scowl.  


She turned away and stepped into the shower.  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

"Commander Shepard." The Illusive Man dragged in a breath of smoke and crossed his legs in his chair. Behind him, a planet glowed brightly and shifted constantly - Shepard recognized it as a star of some sort, but beyond that, she didn't have very good astrological skills.  


"Illusive Man." She shifted her weight, looking around her at the field that was projecting her hologram. She crossed her arms over her chest. "I thought that we'd be meeting in person."  


"A necessary precaution." He looked her over once with another drag of his cigarette. She grimaced slightly and was suddenly glad that he wasn’t actually in the room. "Not unusual for people who know what you and I know."  


"You might be the reason I'm still alive," Shepard stepped forward, anger in her eyes. She raised a hand and pointed at him angrily, as if demanding answers of some kind. Her eyes were in a hard glare as she stared at him. "But that doesn’t mean I trust you."  


"You need to put your personal feelings aside. Humanity is up against the greatest threat of our brief existence." The man dead-panned and Shepard was almost shocked. She recovered her expression quickly and took a step back. Every bone and nerve in her body was telling her to politely tell him to "fuck off". She wanted more than anything to turn around and never see him again, though she knew that was highly unlikely. She had a feeling that she would be seeing a lot more of him.  


"The Reapers." Shepard concluded, dread forming a knot in her chest.  


"Good to see your memory's still intact. How are you feeling?" The Illusive man breathed out smoke and looked her over once again. She tried to read something from his facial expression - anything that would tell her what she was doing her - but she came up with nothing. She watched him flick ashes into his ash tray and had the sudden urge to kick it over.  


"Cut to the chase. What are the Reapers doing that made you decide to bring me back?" She crossed her arms over her chest again and leaned back on her feet, watching him carefully. She was still waiting for him to slip up and reveal something. She hoped that she had a way out of this.  


"We're at war." He stood from his chair, cigarette still in hand. He began to walk closer to her as he spoke. "No one wants to admit it, but humanity is under attack. While you've been sleeping, entire colonies have been disappearing. Human colonies."  


Shepard's brows furrowed together in confusion. Her arms dropped to her side and she straightened, taking the entire situation a great deal more serious now. If human colonies were disappearing, that meant...  


"We believe it's someone working for the Reapers. Just as Saren and the Geth aided Sovereign." He took a breath and another puff of smoke left his lips. Shepard watched him with a level expression as he studied her, waiting for him to continue. "You've seen it yourself. You've bested all of them. That's just one reason we chose you."  


"You'll need more than just words to convince me." Shepard grimaced. She didn't like any of this - if what he said was true, than the Reapers were branching out. They were building their defenses, or something, and they were preparing. They were preparing as humanity just sat on its ass and denied any evidence to show that the Reapers were coming.  


"I'd be disappointed if I could convince you that easily." He smirked. He turned away and began to walk back towards his seat, tossing the cigarette into the ash tray. Shepard followed him, still trying to process what he was telling her. "I have a shuttle ready to take you to Freedom's Progress, the latest colony to be abducted. Miranda and Jacob will brief you."  


"Miranda killed Wilson in cold blood. Jacob's just a gun for hire. You expect me to trust them?"  


"Wilson was one of my best agents. But he was a traitor." He reached up and ran a hand through his hair, looking rather exasperated with the conversation. Shepard smirked lightly to herself. "Miranda did exactly what I expected of her. And she saved your life in more ways than one. Jacob's a solider, one of the best. He's never fully trusted me, but he's always been honest about it. You'll be fine with them. For now."  


The ominous ending of his sentence piqued Shepard's interest. She looked at him quizzically and she stared at him for a moment, expecting him to add onto the sentence. When he didn't, she took a steadying breath and recalibrated her thoughts.  


"Is this a volunteer job, or am I _being_ volunteered?" The emphasis in her voice revealed how displeased she was with the situation, not that she was trying to hide it before.  


"You always have a choice, Shepard. If you don't find the evidence we're both looking for, we can part ways. But first, go to Freedom's Progress. Find any clues you can. Who's abducting the colonies? Do they have any connection to the Reapers?"  


Shepard lowered her head at his words, unable to come up with an argument that would get her out of this. She wanted - needed - to save those people because that was her job. She was the one that dug into all of this in the first place, the Reapers were on her. She was responsible for bringing them to an end because no one else would believe her. She had to bring them proof.  


"I brought you back. It's up to you to do the rest."

**Author's Note:**

> I enjoyed writing this chapter simply because I love getting inside Shepard's head. I feel like the game did a good job of creating a stoic character but I also love giving her/him more emotion underneath that touch exterior. Maybe that's just me, though. :)


End file.
